How To Make Your Own Web Mashup ?

Contributed by admin on 3 Jul 2011

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So you want to make a mashup but aren’t entirely sure where to begin? This blog post can help you get there.

1. Pick a subject
Answer the question: a mashup of what? Hint: Plotting markers on maps is probably the easiest place to start. It might just be the best delis in your neighborhood. While you could go for something more complex with multiple data sources: maps + photos + bookmarks + more, you may want to keep it simple to start.This helps define what APIs and tools you’ll be looking at: maps, news, auctions, products, etc.

2. Decide where your data is coming from
What is the source of your data? This can drive the APIs you’ll use. For example, if you want to do something with your photos on Flickr or sale items on eBay, then those vendors APIs are the likely candidates. Or, you may be inputting the data yourself such as with simple map markers. In which case your options are more open.

3. Weigh your coding skills
Mashups, as of today, are mostly a programmer’s affair although there are some tools such as MapBuilder and Wayfaring that can help you create basic maps without coding. For complex applications you can contact experts like Neevtech.

How much of a coder are you?
Maps APIs are simplest but more sophisticated APIs, such as those for conducting financially-sensitive operations like auctions, are more complex.

How much time do you have?
Again, development speed is inversely proportional to complexity.

Do you have a server to run this on?
Simpler APIs can be used from JavaScript in a web page or take specially formated XML file as input (as shown here at Engadget). While this is indeed simple, security issues limit JavaScript’s suitability for true client-only mashups. Odds are that you will need to run your application from a web server which you manage or have access to.

What language will you use?
This is primarily driven by what programming languages you know. While your decision may also be influenced by vendor-provided toolkits, most web APIs aim to be language-agnostic so this is less of a vendor-dictacted issue than your own choice. You can use the API reference to see if an API has a language-specific toolkit (such as Flickr which has many).

4. Sign-up for an API
Most, but not all, API providers require you to have a developer/application ID, a user account with their service, or both. Some services give you one ID for as many applications as you write while others require you to get an ID for each application that you create. While this signup may sound complicated, and for a few services it is, most of the time this takes only a minute or two to complete. As an example, take a look at the Google Sign-up Page.

5. Start coding
For this step, the big one, rather than describe the many variations in detail, I’ll refer you to a variety of well-written and useful API-specific tutorials and introductions. You can also check the profile for any of the APIs and refer to resources from the reference section as needed.

Visit us at Neevtech.com to know more about our offerings.

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